Drop/Add Information for Faculty

Enrollment Cap – the course is open if the enrollment is below the cap; closed if the enrollment is at or above the cap. As a single control, students can add on a first-come first-served basis if spaces are available.

Instructor (or Department) Consent – even if spaces are open, students cannot add the course online. You need to e-mail the Registrar’s Office, to Mary.L.Morrison@williams.edu, with a request to add any students allowed into the course.

Where can you see what drop/add controls are on your course?

In the Faculty Center, click the link in the ‘Class’ column to see Class Details. The status, open or closed, is under Class Details. If the course is instructor or department consent, this is under Enrollment Information. Under Class Availability, the Class Capacity (or Combined Section Capacity) and Enrollment display.

If you use the Class Search, the Results page shows the Open/Closed status. If you click the link next to Section, you will see the Class Detail page as above.

In the Queries and Forms menu, you can run the Class Sections Enrollment Query. This is more useful for a multi-sectioned course. The ‘Enrl Stat’ column will show the section as O-open or C-closed. The ‘Cap Enrl’ and ‘Tot Enrl’ shows the enrollment cap and total enrollment. The ‘Consent’ column shows I=Instructor Consent, D=Department Consent, N=No consent needed.

To set either an enrollment cap or instructor consent flag, or just ask for advice on either, contact Mary Morrison at x4286 or Mary.L.Morrison@williams.edu. E-mail are read evenings and weekends during drop/add.

If your course doesn’t have an enrollment cap or instructor consent flag, do you need one or both?

Enrollment cap

Enrollment caps for courses are set in the catalog description and should not be changed once preregistration for a semester has begun.

Multi-sectioned lab or conference courses may have enrollment caps set on the lab or conference sections to maintain an enrollment balance between sections. Some of the caps are set from the course enrollment cap and some from known limits on physical lab space.

If your course overenrolled and you dropped students, we have set an instructor consent flag.

If your course is hovering at the enrollment cap and you have a waitlist, you should ask for instructor consent so that you can manage who can add the class. If first-come, first-served as spaces open is okay with you, you don’t need instructor consent. Once instructor consent is set, you can add students to the class by e-mailing Mary.L.Morrison@williams.edu with a list of students to add.

Do you need to have instructor consent set before drop/add opens?

Yes, if you know you need to manage a waitlist.

No, if you want drop/add activity to run by itself for a while. Some instructors contact our office after the first class meeting or later, at the point where the class is established and no more students should add without consulting the instructor.